GENERATION OF ANIMALS, V. ii. 



movement while it is causing movement]. The 

 same condition occurs during damp seasons and 

 in damp cUmates,'' and the ears appear to get filled 

 with pneuma, because the principle is situated close 

 by the region that is concerned with the pneuma. 

 Thus, accuracy in distinguishing the differences both 

 of sounds and smells depends upon the purity of the 

 sense-organ and of the membrane upon its surface, 

 for all the movements turn out plain and distinct in 

 such cases also, just as in the case of sight.] (6) Per- 

 ception from a distance, too, [and failure to perceive 

 from a distance] occurs in the same way as in the case 

 of sight. Thus, animals which have as it were 

 channels passing through the parts concerned and 

 projecting well out in front of the sense-organs can 

 perceive from a distance ; and that is why animals 

 which have long nostrils, hke the Laconian hounds,'' 

 are keen-scented : the sense-organ is set well back 

 in the interior, and therefore the movements which 

 come from a distance do not get scattered but take a 

 straight course, which is just what happens when we 

 shade our eyes with the hand. Another similar case 

 is that of those animals which have ears that are long 

 and jut well out Uke the cornice of a house '' — some 

 quadrupeds have ears of this sort — and a long internal 

 spiral passage ; these long ears, hke the long noses, 

 catch the movement a long way off and transmit it 

 to the sense-organ. 



Accuracy of perception by the senses when exer- 



« Lit., " blends " ; cf. 767 a 31, 777 b 7. 

 * There is a long passage about Laconian hounds in 

 H.A. 574 a 16 If. ' Cf. P.A. 658 b 16. 



509 



